LANGSTON HUGHES

LANGSTON HUGHES, (1902 -1967) Poet, playwright, and author who was called the “Poet Laureate of Black America.”

Yale University holds the Langston Hughes collection containing letters, manuscripts, photographs, artworks, and objects that document and honor the life and works of Hughes.

Narration:

Poet, novelist, and playwright. His name – Langston Hughes.

Born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, James Mercer Langston Hughes demonstrated distinct writing abilities.

By eighth grade, he was a class poet and published by high school. His first published poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers was composed in 1920 while Hughes was still in his teens. It’s one of his most famous works.

Before graduating from Lincoln University in 1929, he published his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues. His first novel, Not Without Laughter, published in 1930, won the Harmon Gold Medal for literature.

The innovator of jazz poetry, the art form of setting poems to music, Langston Hughes was the voice of racial consciousness, who greatly influenced the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Langston Hughes – A Great American

Credits: Editor: Stacy T. Holmes, ACE, Narrator: Steve Schy, Music: PartnersinRhyme.com, Digital Collection: Library of Congress, Copyright: CBN Communications